The preservation of my life, which has been already several times in danger, should have been the special charge of the heir to my throne, but blinded, and estranged from all those Christian principles in which my paternal care and love have reared him, he has given his consent to a plot to dethrone me.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1, 1807-1809 From the Treaty of Fontainbleau to the Battle of Corunna by Charles Oman

And there are and haue béene few sées in England, which at one time or other haue not fetched their bishops for the most part from this see: for as it is of it selfe but a small thing in déed, so it is commonlie a preparatiue to an higher place.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

Once in a while the slaves withdrew their paddles, leaving the vessel to the breeze; at such times it drifted so near that swells, something like those of the sea when settling into calm, tumbled the surface; far to the south, however, he discerned the canoe, looking no larger than a blue-winged gull.
— from The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico by Lew Wallace

A subtle penetration into character marks the unlikeness in the likeness; there is enough at once of resemblance and of difference in the position and surroundings of each to account for the divergences of character that arise; both children are good-hearted, and both have the advantage of association with models of tender simplicity and oddity, perfect in their truth and quite distinct from each other; but a sudden tumble into distress steadies Peggotty's little friend, and as unexpected a stroke of good fortune turns the head of the small protégé of Joe Gargery.
— from The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by John Forster